Can provincial governments lead on Net Zero?
Recently I had the opportunity to do a keynote at the Sarawak Sustainability Insights Forum and it prompted me to think hard about the role that provincial governments can play in the Net Zero transformation. I must admit that previously I had a view that local or provincial governments were more likely to be impacted by state and federal policies, rather than the drivers of change. But in retrospect, that is probably a developed world mindset (and maybe even just an Australian focused view!!). My interactions with the Premier of Sarawak and some of his cabinet and the work done by EY on the Sarawak Blueprint has completely changed my mind. The shear volume of activity across a broad range of technologies that will be needed to be implemented in the coming years, which I covered in my keynote, demonstrates that without local community and provincial government support, we have no chance of restricting warming below 2 degrees let alone 1.5 degrees.
Thankfully leaders like The Right Honourable Datuk Oatinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Premier of Sarawak, understand the need and are playing their role in driving change.
If you are interested, my full keynote is provided below.
You can also check out the draft blueprint here:
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The Right Honourable Datuk Oatinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Premier of Sarawak.
The Honourable Datuk Amar Prof. Dr. Sim Kui Hian, Deputy Premier and Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government Sarawak
The Honourable Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Asfia Bin Awang Nasar, Speaker of Sarawak State Legislative Assembly
The Honourable Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin, Minister for Transport Sarawak
The Honourable Datuk Dr. Haji Hazland Bin Abang Hipni, Deputy Minister for Energy and Environmental Sustainability Sarawak
Honourable Deputy Ministers
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to be here in Kuching, Sarawak today and a privilege to be talking to you on such a critical topic at a critical moment in time for Sarawak, for Asia and for our planet. The level of attendance today shows the collective commitment and dedication we share towards advancing sustainability and setting a course towards net zero.
As part of my introduction, I am going to start by setting the global context for our discussions today, outlining the external environment that will drive action here in Sarawak as well as across South East Asia, talk about what we have achieved so far, and the scale of the transformation that is necessary for us to restrict warming to below 2 degrees.
Much in the climate debate is uncertain, what we can say, however, is that transformation has well and truly begun. Global investment in the renewable energy sector is now in the trillions of dollars and growing by over $300 billion a year, outstripping investment in traditional power generation[i]. Levelized costs for on-shore wind and utility scale solar are now well below that of coal, gas and nuclear energy. It is now simply cheaper to install renewable energy in the majority of cases in the majority of locations.
The transport sector is also changing. Sales of electric vehicles globally has grown to close to 15% of all passenger vehicle sales in just 10 years[ii]. Shipping has improved its global energy efficiency by 30% since 2008[iii] and over 100,000 electric trucks or buses were sold in 2022[iv].
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All of these initiatives along with millions of other actions have resulted in the world halting the exponential growth in greenhouse gas emissions. 2022 was still the highest amount we have emitted in human history, but it was only slightly higher than what we emitted in 2019[v]. Slowing this growth has taken a monumental effort as although we saw a dip during the pandemic, economic growth continues at pace, particularly here in Asia.
It will also not come as a surprise to anybody in this room that despite this significant progress, we are currently on a path that is above our global goals. To restrict warming to 1.5 degrees or even 2 degrees, we would need to completely transform the energy supply sector globally, remove the internal combustion engine, overhaul global shipping, implement new technologies at scale across the manufacturing sector and build a sequestration sector that is as large as the energy sector is today. All of this needs to happen in the next 20 years.
With this scale of change at the global level, there will be winners and losers. Some sectors will see significant constraints to growth if they don’t adapt. Which sectors this will impact will not always be obvious. For example, as much as 40% of global shipping is moving fossil fuels around[vi].
But as with any transformation, there will also be significant opportunities for growth. The key for regions like Sarawak, is how to identify the disruptions, when they will occur and be poised to take advantage of the changes to come … and in many cases help drive the change.
That is why the blueprint presented here and the discussions we will have today are so crucial. Anticipating the changes, investing in the solutions and securing the capital will be the difference between growth and prosperity, and economic stagnation.
Solutions will need to be varied, sector and geography specific and will need to utilize capital in the most efficient ways if we are to succeed.
Transitioning in the short term from coal to gas, developing carbon capture and storage, growth in green hydrogen and green ammonia, on-shore and off-shore wind, solar that operates more effectively and efficiently in a range of applications, electrification and the necessary infrastructure deployment, battery storage, hydrogen as a firming technology and direct air capture will likely all be needed to get us to net zero. Bio sequestration from afforestation, seaweed farming and algae production will also be necessary. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet, other than the truly incredible capacity of our collective innovation globally and hopefully the will of communities around the world to effect change.
I would just like to finish by saying thank you to you Premier, for your leadership and courage in seeking new ways to continue Sarawak’s prosperity and I look forward to all of the discussions we will have today.
Thank you.
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Senior Analyst | sustainability reporting | policy and regulation | compliance | climate change
3 个月Interesting reflections Mat. The stat on the large share of shipping put to transporting fossil fuels stood out, it will be interesting to see how this changes with the energy transition and emerging fuels
Partner, Net Zero Centre, Climate Change and Sustainability Services at EY, born 339ppm
3 个月Timely post, thanks Mathew Nelson.